SERM. This is certainly right and true, whatever II. is not fo. If then we will be wife for our

felves, let it appear by our Actions. Who is a wife and knowing Man among you, fays St James, let him fhew out of a good. Converfation his Works with Meekness of Wifdom. This is Religion, or Wisdom, as Solomon loves to call it, that is more precious than Rubies, that must always be cloathed with the Beauty of Holiness, and fline forth in the lovely Ornament of a good Life.

Now to him, who is the Lord of all Power and Might, and the Author and Giver of all good Things, let us continually offer up our humble Prayers, that he would graft in our Hearts the Love of his Name, increase in us true Religion, nourish us with all Goodness, and of his great Mercy keep us in the fame, through Jefus Christ our Lord: To whom with the Father and Holy Ghoft, be afcribed, as is most due, all Honour, Glory, Might, Majefty and Dominion, henceforth and for

evermore.

1

SER

SERMON III.

JOB iv. 17.

Shall mortal Man be more juft than God? Shall a Man be more pure than his Maker?

N the early Ages of the World, SERM when the Almighty condefcended III. to speak to his Creatures, and de

"

clare his Will in Dreams and Vifions, thefe Words were fpoken to Eliphaz, in a Vifion of the Night, as he was ruminating, in a penfive Manner, upon the Circumftances of what had happen'd to him before on fuch Occafions; and the Reafon of his relating them to Job, was, becaufe he thought he had been too prefumptuous in his Complaints on the Miferies of Life, thereby tacitly accufing the Divine Providence of Injuftice, in appointing him to

undergo

SERM. undergo fo heavy a Burden of Afflictions: III. For when Job's three Friends came to fee him, of whom Eliphaz was one, and he had a long while in vain expected them to condole with him in his Miseries, and comfort him in his Sorrows, he could not forbear crying out, Let the Day perifh wherein I was born, and the Night in which it was faid, There is a Man Child conceived: Let that Day be Darkness, let not God regard it from Above, neither let the Light Shine upon it: Let Darkness and the Shadow of Death ftain it; let a Cloud dwell upon it; let the Blackness of the Day terrify it: As for that Night, let Darkness feize upon it; let it not be joined unto the Days of the Tear; let it not come into the Number of the Months: Because it but not up the Doors of my Mother's Womb, nor hid Sorrow from mine Eyes; for now should I have lain ftill and been quiet, I should have fept then, and have been at Reft with Kings and Counsellors of the Earth, which built defo. late Places for themselves. There the Wicked ceafe from Troubling, and the Weary be at Reft; there the Prisoners reft together, they hear not the Voice of the Oppreffor; the Small and the Great are there, and the Servant is free from his Mafler. At which

Complaint

n

Complaint Eliphaz, being greatly incens'd, SERM. fharply rebukes him for not putting in III. Practice thofe good Rules and Inftructions which he had given others; and tells him, that he fufpects his Piety and Goodnefs, because the Innocent were not wont to fuffer fuch Things, but the Wicked and Oppreffors, whom God had always humbled, tho' they exalted themselves never fo much against him. And left thefe Obfervations fhould not be fufficient to convince him of his Error, he relates to him what he had heard himfelf in a Vifion. A Thing was fecretly brought to me, fays he, and mine Ear receiv'd a little thereof; in Thoughts from the Visions of the Night, when deep Sleep falleth on Men, Fear came upon me, and Trembling, which made all my Bones to fbake; then a Spirit paffed before my Face, the Hair of my Flefb ftood up, it stood still, but I could not difcern the Form thereof; an Image was be. fore mine Eyes, there was Silence, and I heard a Voice, faying, Shall mortal Man be more just than God? Shall a Man be more pure than his Maker? i. e. 'Tis in vain. for frail Man to difpute, or conteft the Juftice of God's Proceedings, or for an imperfect Creature to exalt himself against his Maker; for tho' we fuppofe him to be as F eminently

SERM. eminently juft and righteous as he is unjuft III. and unrighteous, yet as long as he has the least Imperfection in him, he can't be perfectly fo, he can't therefore be as perfect as God who made him ; for whatever Juftice or Goodness is in Man, must be fo in God in a more excellent Degree. From the Words of the Text, I propofe to fhew,

I. That the Afflictions which happen to us in this Life are no Objections against the Juftice of God. And then propofe

to fhew,

II. That the Leffon moft proper and natural to be learnt from this, is, not to murmur and repine at any thing that befalls us, but to fubmit ourselves and our Caufe to God.

First, then, I am to fhew, that the Afflictions which happen to us in this Life are no Objections against the Juftice of God. For to fuppofe the contrary, pro ceeds from an Ignorance of God and Man. For any thing this Suppofition fuggests to the contrary, God may be indeed a Being endued with great Power, but as for Wif'dom, Knowledge, and Goodness, in these

he